Soft-spoken, fast-talking Jesse Eisenberg is an actor whose wide-ranging resume proves he's eager for a challenge. But don't challenge him to talk about the upcoming "Batman vs. Superman" — in which he'll star as Lex Luthor — because he'll just have to clam up.

"It's an interesting character. The movie is really good," he told TODAY Monday. "But yeah, if I say anything beyond that, somebody will probably descend from the ceiling."

The role of Superman's nemesis has been played by several actors over the years, including Gene Hackman. Eisenberg joked that the two-time Oscar-winning actor "hasn't stopped calling. It's getting a little annoying."

Though Eisenberg wasn't able to say much about his diabolical character, he was really able to open up about his new film "The Double," in which he plays two characters: the passive Simon James and the assertive James Simon. But they're not twins.

"The story is about this one guy who's kind of going insane, and this other character comes in as a like a kind of manifestation of his insanity," he explained. "So they're kind of opposite sides of the same psychological break."

And being able to play two such different characters had a real impact on Eisenberg's psyche. "Instinctively, when you're filming the scenes (with Simon) you feel just unsure," he said. "And then the other guy is so confident that when you're filming the scenes ... you just, like, unconsciously feel better about them. So I'd always feel better about those scenes even though the acting maybe requires something less."